Kirby’s Pink Gingerbread Man returns to this challenging time, with each new release from Nintendo becomes worth its weight in gold. Kirby fighters 2 continues to develop the ideas of the original spin-off in the fighting game genre, released in 2014. In the sequel, as expected, an even more obvious emphasis is placed on the multiplayer component and the availability of the game for the children’s age category.
Let’s say right away – playing Kirby Fighters 2 without a noisy company of friends is pretty pointless, so be prepared to find yourself at least one faithful partner. There are several standard modes to choose from, including regular battle, LAN or Internet play. Present in Kirby Fighters 2 and some semblance of a plot in which you, alternately defeating ordinary rivals and bosses, must get to the top of the tower and face King Dedede and Meta Knight. Trying to add an additional challenge to the game for fans of high difficulties, the authors offer another mode for a while, where you need to fight against enemies alone.
In terms of gameplay, the game is very similar to the previous part Kirby fighters – it’s still the same easy-to-learn fighting game, reminiscent of the younger brother of the series Super Smash Bros., but with much less functionality. Fighters can use the vertical structure of the arenas, jumping up and down the platforms, and also gain an advantage by collecting the drop-down prizes, for example, a self-propelled cannon, from which you can shower the opponent with cannonballs. In many arenas, there are spatial dangers and traps that do not depend on the player’s actions, such as a giant robot that every now and then strives to throw its iron hand over the unlucky koloboks – in this case, all that remains is to dodge and run away. During the passage of the story, we will especially note the bosses, among which there are also many familiar characters from the series. The dynamics of the battles are not high, but thanks to the special conditions for each level, the game does not have time to get bored too quickly.
A wide selection of Kirby fighters, or rather their weapons and fighting style, also contributes to replayability – as many as 17 main ones and a few more bonus ones. Here you will find everything from swords, staves, samurai swords, wrestling techniques to the Indiana Jones whip, fighting yo-yo, umbrella and so on. Not to say that the variability of the characters adds a special depth to the gameplay, but in any case it makes the battles chaotic and funny. Each weapon has its own hitting area and speed, but you don’t have to practice too much to easily change characters – the controls in the game are as simple as possible.
In terms of graphics, Kirby Fighters 2 pleases with a bright, rich picture and cute style, familiar to everyone who has played the Kirby series at least once, but no interesting aesthetic experiments, as in Epic Yarn or Rainbow paintbrush we don’t see here. From the point of view of optimization, there is also nothing to complain about – the game keeps a stable frame rate for a leisurely fighting game, only occasionally stuttering at moments with a large number of effects on the screen. The soundtrack is in the spirit of other Kirby projects with a slight nod to the epic Super Smash Bros. soundtrack, which gives the game the charm it needs, but nothing more.
